Achieving high-performance acoustical design in healthcare facilities is a challenge that often requires decisions balancing competing interests, but nevertheless, effective acoustical performance is a critical need for all types of healthcare facilities.

Noise in healthcare is an important concern. Achieving high-performance acoustical design in healthcare facilities is a challenge that often requires decisions balancing competing interests such as visibility versus enclosure, surface maintenance versus sound absorption, and initial construction budget versus long-term value. Nevertheless, effective acoustical performance is a critical need for all types of healthcare facilities.

A growing awareness of the problem of noise in healthcare environments has become most evident in recent years. A widely-reported 2005 study at Johns Hopkins Hospital (Busch-Vishniac, West, et. al. ) determined that hospital noise has been rising to levels well beyond the World Health Organization’s recommended guidelines since the 1960s to the detriment of patients and caregivers.

IN mid-March my 85-year-old father checked into a prominent New York City hospital for a scheduled operation. The procedure, to remove a cancerous tumor from his thigh, went well, and soon he was sent home.

But three days later, unable to cope with a complicated wound care regimen, he landed back in the hospital.

My father had become part of a notorious trend. Discharge from the hospital is a critical point in a patient’s recovery, particularly for older people with chronic conditions. The process is supposed to be carefully planned, but instead it often is rushed and poorly coordinated, resulting in complications that send patients back to the emergency room.

According to a study published last year in The New England Journal of Medicine, one in five Medicare patients returns to the hospital within 30 days of being discharged. The problem is an expensive one: in 2004, these readmissions cost Medicare $17.4 billion dollars, the researchers also found.

U.S. and abroad to simplify the experience for patients by providing a network of world-renown facilities and affordable, quality treatment in Brazil and Spain, announces the opening of its offices in Brazil (Sao Paulo), Spain (Barcelona) and the United States (New Jersey). Both countries emerge as desirable locations for medical travelers because of their longstanding traditions for delivering exceptional medical care, exemplary health care facilities, and English-speaking physicians.

“Building on its robust economy, established reputation for safe, first-world accommodations, and anticipated activities related to the 2014 FIFA World Cup and International Summer Olympics,Brazil is a destination of choice for medical travelers seeking high quality, affordable medical care,” says Alex Lifschitz, CEO of Sphera International, the only company of its kind to maintain offices and executives in the U.S. to directly assist American companies and the public regarding medical travel in the business-to-business and direct-to-consumer sectors.